The following generally relates to systems, devices, and methods for modulating liquid crystalline (LC) materials with nanosecond electro-optic response times. The system generally relates to, but is not limited to, LC electro-optical devices, LC shutters, LC lens, spatial light modulators, telecommunication devices, tunable filters, beam steering devices, waveguides, displays, and the like.
Liquid crystals are among the first choice of materials for designing devices in the information display technology sector due to their long-range orientational order, fluidity, and optical birefringence. The effective birefringence of an LC, which is an optical property defined by a refractive index that depends on the polarization and propagation of light, may be manipulated by applying an electric field between opposite electrodes which surround LC material. The applied electric field may be dynamically switched to align LC materials along the direction of the applied field.
This dynamic switching of the applied electric field enables the production of low cost, controllable, electro-optical devices such as Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs). LCD devices are based on the reorientation of liquid crystal molecules such as liquid crystal (LC) molecules by the application of an electric field. Tremendous efforts have been made to improve the performance of LCDs, especially their switching response time.
Accordingly, response time is one of the most critical issues for LC devices that involve dynamic switching. When dealing with LC material response time, most published literature refers to time to reorientation of the optical axis of LC materials (also known as the director rather than optical response time. For amplitude modulation, e.g., liquid crystal display devices, an LC device is usually sandwiched between two polarizers. The measured quantity is transmittance change and the associated dynamic response is optical rise or decay time. On the other hand, for a phase-only modulator such as optical phased arrays, the measured response time is phase change. In either situation, the optical response time for amplitude modulation and phase response time for phase modulation is understood in the art as being related to the director {circumflex over (n)} reorientation time.
Previous liquid crystal electro-optic studies have induced phase retardation of LC materials primarily by reorientating the director ({circumflex over (n)}). However, inducing phase retardation via this established method has drawbacks. The response time for reorienting the director {circumflex over (n)} in this scenario is relatively slow, e.g., on the order of milliseconds.
The systems, devices, and methods according to the present application provide liquid crystalline (LC) materials with nanosecond electro-optic response times. The described systems, devices, and methods operate by fast (several nanoseconds) modifications of order parameters (OP) of LC materials. Applications of the described approaches include electrooptics applications, such as but not limited to liquid crystal shutters, optical switches, light modulators, waveguides, telecommunications devices, liquid crystal lenses, tunable filters, beam steering devices, optical shutters, optical displays, light limiting applications, and others.